"Demonstrating that you are in control of your life's direction meant that you were not seen as boring. Behaving as though you had no choice over how your life went led to higher judgments of boringness. Madison was perceived as a bore! We know that highly boredom-prone people experience less agency. They feel as though they are not fully in control of their lives. And we know that feelings of state boredom make us see less agency in the world around us."
"Who is more boring? Madison or Jacob? We recently asked this question and found that the key was agency. Demonstrating that you are in control of your life's direction meant that you were not seen as boring. Behaving as though you had no choice over how your life went led to higher judgments of boringness. Madison was perceived as a bore!"
"What our latest work suggests is that a lack of agency in others makes them seem quite boring to us. With my colleague John Eastwood, we wrote about what made a person boring in an earlier PT blog. Being banal, overly ingratiating, or just too self-occupied all contributed to a perception of being boring. Narcissism clearly plays a role here."
People who appear to control their lives are not judged as boring. Agency is central to both experiencing boredom and perceiving others as boring. When someone behaves as if they have no choice about their life direction, they are judged as more boring. When someone actively establishes their own direction, boredom is reduced and others view them more positively. People who are prone to boredom tend to experience less agency and feel less in control. Feelings of state boredom also reduce perceived agency in the surrounding world. New findings indicate that low agency in others makes them seem boring. Earlier work linked boredom judgments to banality, excessive ingratiation, and self-absorption, with narcissism also playing a role.
Read at Psychology Today
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